Future Perfect Tense, Progressive Aspect
by EllieMurasaki
Summary: The future tense marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet. The perfect calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action. The progressive aspect expresses the dynamic quality of actions that are in progress.


Lilith will always have been trying a last-ditch attempt to survive; Lilith will always have been taunting Sam Winchester into her own murder. (Christ will always have been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; Christ will always have been dying on the cross on Calvary. Lilith will always have been aware of this.) Lilith will always have been opening the last lock and Sam will always have been turning the key.

Sam will always have been seeking to save his brother's soul; he will always have been failing, and he will always have been seeking revenge. Ruby will always have been presenting him with the way to exact revenge. The road to hell will always have been being ordered by the righteous, being planned by the well-meaning, being paved with good intentions; Sam will always have been remembering his father's Marine code of honor—semper fidelis, always faithful—even as he will always have been praying for a way to achieve his end without breaking faith with his brother, and, as he will always have been knowing the hopelessness of his prayer, he will always have been hurtling headlong into damnation. (Christ will always have been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane; Christ will always have been dying on the cross on Calvary.) Sam will always have been becoming the key.

Azazel will always have been pitting his demon-tainted angel vessels against one another. Sam will never have been as willing to kill another human as Jake, though both will always have been being snatched away from a war zone. Dean will always have been driving to a crossroads in South Dakota. The demon waiting there will always have been meeting him at another crossroads. She will always have been knowing that getting Dean into hell will always have been an easy task because Mary and John and Sam will always have been dying and Dean will always have been afraid of being alone, will always have been convincing himself that of his worthlessness, especially next to his family, and John will never have been convincing Dean otherwise. She will always have been knowing of the need to have in hell the brother of Lucifer's mortal skin. Dean will always have been opening the first lock and Sam, even in his absence, will always have been turning the key.

Dean will always have been killing Azazel in Wyoming. He will always have been trying to kill Azazel in Lawrence, but he will always only have been bringing Mary Campbell to Azazel's attention. Azazel will always have been possessing Samuel Campbell, just as he will always have been possessing John Winchester, and Dean will never have been noticing. Dean will always have been telling Azazel about things that will always have been happening in one's past and the other's future. Azazel will always have been knowing about Mary's younger child. Mary will always have been kissing her fiancé's killer. Azazel will always have been being invited through all her defenses to the crib where one of the few things she will always have been protecting will always have been sleeping. Azazel will always have been feeding demon blood to Mary's second son, will always have been reshaping the child from a vessel strong enough to contain an archangel's grace into something stronger. She will always have been interrupting, she will always have been dying, she will always have been ordering her husband with her last breath to protect her sons at all costs. John will always have been seeking revenge on Mary's murderer, and he will always have been entrusting his younger son to his older when he will always have been hunting without them, and so Sam and Dean will always have been becoming each other's first and last resort. Sam's four parents will always have been forging Sam Winchester into the key to the keystone seals.

Anael will always have been dying before Uriel's eyes; she will always have been showing him that disobedience will always have been a possibility. He will always have been treating her differently after that, and the others of their garrison will always have been joining him; she will always have been seeing that as a rejection of her. She will always have been tearing out her grace and choosing a new mortal family and a new mortal life—she will always have been whispering her name in Amy Milton's ear, and Amy will always have been naming her daughter Anna Elizabeth, because Anael may always have been falling but she will always have been blazing bright with angel grace—and she will always have been acting to defend the people she will always have been joining, to the point that she will always have been twisting time back on itself. Anael will always have been rebelling because Anael will always have been rebelling. She will always have been trying to prevent the birth of the key to Lucifer's cage.

Michael will always have been imprisoning Lucifer. Lucifer will always have been walking free.

Hunters will always have been knowing about Sam. Roy and Walt will always have been killing Sam, and then Dean because Winchesters will always have been avenging their own. Reapers will always have been escorting Sam and Dean to heaven (except that hellhounds will always have been dragging Dean to hell), and Dean will always have been losing faith in Sam, his one constant, and God, his last hope.

The not-Leah-Gideon will always have been condemning innocents to hell. Dean will always have been knowing that no one will ever have been deserving of the tortures that the damned will always have been enduring. He will always have been fleeing Sam, because he will never have been praying for deliverance that he will always have been knowing won't come, and Sam will always have been believing that surrender will never have been an option.

(Christ will always have been conceding in the Garden of Gethsemane; Christ will always have been dying on the cross on Calvary.)

Dean will always have been saying yes to Michael.

But.

Sam will always have been believing that surrender will never have been an option.

Sam will always have been speaking to the prophet and to the first of the authors of this gospel's midrashim. She will always have been realizing that demons will always have been tortured souls with a touch of angel's grace, that neither the fragment of Lucifer's power that Sam will always have been inheriting from Azazel nor the shadow of a fragment of Lucifer's power that Sam will always have been tasting in Ruby's blood will ever have been enough for Sam to overpower the oldest and strongest of demons.

Lucifer and Michael will always have been evenly matched one-on-one, and Michael will always have been leading more soldiers than Lucifer.

Angels will never have been capable of dying except when in a human vessel. Lucifer and Michael will always have been intending to fight to the death.

Lucifer will always have been wanting a vessel capable of amplifying the power of the grace in the vessel's body.

Sam will always have been trying to use his curse against its caster.

Sam will always have been saying yes to Lucifer.

Lucifer will have been meeting Michael, not in Detroit where Sam will have been going to summon a demon to carry a message to Lucifer, but in Arizona. (Dean will never have been seeing the Grand Canyon.) He will have been wearing the amulet that will always have been capable of finding God (because Sam will always have been rescuing the amulet from the trash though Dean will always have been throwing it away), and of course he will have been wearing Sam. Dean will always have been hesitating to do anything to hurt Sam, which will always have been affecting Michael.

Michael will always have been coming alone. Lucifer will always have been waiting alone.

Lucifer—it will have been Lucifer, because only the archangels can have been possessing grace not dependent on the will and whim of heaven, and of the four archangels only Lucifer's blue light will have been being constantly drained of power by thousands of souls damned to shine black instead of bright white—will have been looking out over the canyon at Michael's arrival. He will have been showing Michael the beauty of the world without a single human in sight bar the brothers Winchester. Michael will always have been knowing that Lucifer will always have been wanting his elder brother at his side, but Lucifer's grace will always have been burning out at Michael's hand.

Michael will have been stepping forward, taking Lucifer into his arms, because he will always have been having this one opportunity and no other. Lucifer will have been tilting his head down for a kiss.

Dean will always have been screaming, because Sam will never have been willing to touch Dean as anything but a brother, a mother, a fellow soldier—but Dean will always have been willing to do anything for Sam, and Dean will always have been surrendering his freedom to choose to Michael. Dean will always have been fucking men resembling Sam anyway.

Lucifer will have been sliding Michael's leather jacket and blue shirt off his shoulders, pulling the T-shirt over his head, covering Castiel's handprint with one large hand and sliding the fingertips of the other over where Dean's scars will always and never have been. Michael will have been getting impatient and tearing off Lucifer's white shirt; he will have been reaching for the amulet and Lucifer will have been stopping him.

Lucifer will have been kneeling at Michael's feet, though he will never have been offering submission. Brown dust and said will have been staining his white jeans, like dried blood. He will have been opening the zipper on Michael's blue jeans—he will have been constraining himself in this to his vessel's capabilities; that will have been part of the point of this—and he will have been sliding the jeans and boxers down. Michael's body will have been ready for him. Michael will never have been caring about the prospect of sharp teeth near tender bits—angels will always have been capable of healing their vessels, permanently instead of the jury-rig demons will always have been using—and he will never have been offering submission either.

Lucifer will never have been having the opportunity to do this in his worn-thin first vessel, but Sam will always have been spending his sophomore year at Stanford fucking another young man living on his floor. Dean will never have been aware of this, and so neither he nor Michael will ever have been expecting the experience to be so distracting. Michael will always have been intending to strike with Lucifer alone and preoccupied, but instead there will have been Lucifer's lips and tongue and throat. Dean's brain will have been short-circuiting his thoughts and Michael's, exactly as Lucifer will have been planning, and there will have been a tiny glass bottle hanging from the same cord as the amulet, containing the soul of an archangel.

Dean will always have been thinking tactically, ready to jump headfirst into a spur-of-the-moment plan at the original strategy's failure. Dean will never have been questioning the source of this idea or of the power to carry it out. Dean will have been shoving Lucifer down, pinning him with the strongest archangel's power, and he will never have been realizing the suspicious ease of the task. He will have been summoning his car from Michigan with a thought—it will always have been belonging to him and no other; its purpose will always have been this and no other—and he will have been choosing a knife from the arsenal, Sam's favorite that will never have been on Sam's person at Dean's departure.

It will have been unusually hot for March in the desert. Dean will always have been remembering the fires of hell, and with a knife in hand he will always have been feeling right at home.

Lucifer will have been looking at Dean's knife and grinning, quoting Metallica; the lyricists for "Devil's Dance" and "Jump in the Fire" will always have been writing just for this. Dean will have been remembering a fallen angel who will always have been telling him how she fell.

Dean will always have been torturing souls in hell. He will never have been caring that this one wears Sam's face, or rather, he will always have been caring, but he will never have been letting it stop him, or do anything but urge him on. The Winchesters will always have been avenging their own.

There will have been a bronze amulet hanging from a leather cord around Dean's neck, with a tiny glass bottle on the same cord containing the souls of two archangels.

Dean will have been throwing the blazing-bright blue of Lucifer's grace over the edge of the canyon. He will have been using Michael's power to put Sam's organs back where they belong, to clean out the blood-dark dirt and to knit the veins together. Sam will have been waking, gasping, looking around as though expecting to see something notable now by its absence, and his eyes will have been sliding right over Dean, flicking back to take in Dean naked but for Sam's blood, and going right past.

Dean will always have been kneeling next to Sam; he will have been lifting Sam, unresisting, and cradling him close. Sam will have been saying something about how this isn't Dean, can't be, how he can't see Dean, though his eyes will have been tracking with no difficulty, and can't hear Dean, though he will have been being startled at Dean's voice, and can't speak to Dean, though he will have been speaking aloud. Dean will have been bundling Sam into the back seat of the Impala, tossing Sam's shirt over him and putting his own clothes back on, driving for the nearest town with a liquor store.

Dean will have been taking them ever farther from the Grand Canyon, and he will have been smashing the tiny glass bottle, and an unfortunate woman who will always have been praying for children of her body will have been raising a pair of inseparable twin holy terrors. Dean will have been purposeless save for Sam.

Sam will have been responding only to physical needs and Dean will have been growing ever more certain that Lucifer did damage Michael's power will have been unable to fix. Dean will have been building a pyre for them both. He will have been realizing that he will always have been needing to say goodbye, somehow, some way, and Sam will not have been hearing his words.

Dean will always have been having this one opportunity and no other.

Sam will always have been tasting the grace in Dean's kiss.

Sam will have been grinning bright and broad; he will have been thinking it all an illusion, a stubborn withdrawal hallucination, and victory truly out of reach, but he will have been achieving the victory he will always have been promising. Dean will have been knowing this because he will have been hearing Sam's voice inside his head where the angels' voices will have been. Sam will have been snaking the keys to the Impala from Dean's pocket and hurrying them both back to the Grand Canyon. The June sun will have been heating the canyon dangerously hot, but it will still have been feeling like home to Dean, and Dean will always have been protecting Sam. Sam will have been finding the place at which all water flowing through the Colorado River will have been becoming holy water. Sam will have been flinging himself into the river, baptizing himself in the name of the world's new protector gods, brothers with the power of archangels.

Sam will always have been learning from Ruby how to use his demon blood, and Sam will always have been opening the final seal. But Lucifer will always have been taking a vessel that will never have been anything other than human, so Lucifer will never have been knowing what to do with a vessel that has always been a little more than human, and Sam will always have been knowing exactly what to do.

Sam and Dean will never have been forever damned to heaven or to hell.

Sam will always have been the key to saving the world and Dean will always have been the key to saving Sam.

The prophet will always have been seeing God's plan unfolding exactly as God's plan is, was, and ever shall be unfolding, events that have not yet occurred and that are always occurring; the world will always have been written in future perfect progressive.


End file.
